A series of products is presently commercially available with a special scope of application in the marine environment, such products being used for the in situ identification of specific marine organisms, either by divers equipped with autonomous scuba diving devices or by swimmers carrying a mask of underwater observation and a common snorkel. These products are usually of two types.
The first type is related to simple, flexible cards of plastic material of a relatively small thickness, such cards being printed on either side thereof with illustrations or photos of various marine organisms, such as by way of example of species of algae, plants, invertebrate and vertebrate animals. Printing is currently made by means of various modern printing methods ensuring an optimally high definition of the displayed organisms, e.g. offset type printing. Special printing inks are employed that are adequately resistant to the negative effect of exterior conditions, such as temperature fluctuations, ultraviolet radiation, etc., thereby providing an appropriately long duration of the prints. An eventual full water-proof quality of the cards is obtained by means of either plasticizing techniques or through the employment of special colors and printing techniques. The common name or the official name of the species is written adjacently each one of the depicted organisms in accordance with the current international scientific nomenclature norms of the Kingdoms of Animals and Plants. A pertinent, often composite, title is printed on the upper part of each card, such title referring to the group or the groups of organisms that are being depicted and at the same time to the geographical area where these organisms are being encountered, e.g. coastal fishes of Hawaii (www.fishcards.com, Hawaii Fishwatcher's Field Guide). In some cases the cards include, together with the illustrated organisms, geographical maps, under a scale that appropriately displays the underwater geological relief and the type of the seabed of a specific coastal area, e.g. a marine park, that can also include parts of the coast and/or of the adjacent land, as well as informative material such as toponyms, locations of ship wrecks, areas with artificial reefs, areas where recreational scuba diving is permitted, etc.
A second type of products presents the same features, the only difference being that the illustrated section with the marine organisms or the supplementary informative material is laid out on a plurality of pages, thereby such product being provided in the form of a water-proof book. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,121,587 discloses a wearable book comprising a plurality of pages with displays of marine organisms that is retained on the hand of the user-diver by means of an elastic loop. The pages of this illustrated guide are either perforated in two or more points along one side thereof and they are retained to one another by means of a foil, e.g. of spiral type, or are being connected in only one point thereof on their upper left end. This connection is effected in a way that allows free movement of each page separately from the others and perpendicularly to the axis that passes through the binding point of the pages. In some cases the pages are simply connected to one another by means of water-proof glue or they are simply folded in the middle.
Mostly due to the aggravation of global environmental problems and the publicity related to such problems by the mass media, an increasing sensitivity of the public is presently observed on issues related to the conservation and the protection of the biodiversity at a local, as well as at an international level. This general trend has resulted in the direct observation of the marine biodiversity with the use of an autonomous scuba diving device or even by means of a simple mask and snorkel becoming a favorite recreational activity for the visitors of the coastal zone, mostly during the period of their summer holidays. However, the in situ identification of marine organisms with the assistance of the abovementioned simple water-proof illustrated cards for the identification of organisms of the prior art is an extremely difficult procedure, especially if the amateur involvement of the majority of users in the activity of identification of organisms and their reasonably expected minimal knowledge on scientific fields, such as Biology, Zoology, Botanics, Systematics, Biogeography, etc. is taken into account.
This difficulty is due to the fact that an average person can normally merely temporarily store in his short term visual memory a particularly small number of items or otherwise visual information items. It has in the past been considered that the average potential of storage of visual information in the short term memory amounts at a total of 7±2 distinct information items (G. A. Miller, 1956, “The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information”, The Psychological Review, vol. 63, pp. 81-97). However, modern scientific observations (for instance: Alvarez and Cavanagh, 2004. Psychological Science, vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 106-111) show that the upper limit of storage of items in the short term visual memory of an average observer is even less and moreover that this limit depends on the visual information load that is contained in the various items being observed. In any case modern experimental data show clearly that the maximum number of items that can be memorized in the short term visual memory of a normal (average) person usually does not exceed 4 to 5 different items.
According to the above, it is rather difficult for an amateur observer of marine life, either as a scuba diver or as a common swimmer with a mask and a snorkel, to retain in his memory the organisms that he encounters during a visit of his in the natural environment. In addition, it is not always easy for him to identify directly and with certainty the organisms that he observes in the field and to relate the same with the organisms depicted in the illustrated guide for the identification of organisms that he may be provided with. It must be noted that the number of merely the common species of marine organisms, e.g. fish, that are potentially encountered in a certain coastal area and are usually included in the aforementioned water-proof illustrated guides for the identification of organisms of the prior art is quite large and usually it ranges from 40 to 80 or even more different species. The large variety of biological species that live in a certain bio-geographical area in combination with the almost complete lack of familiarization of the average recreational swimmer or scuba diver with scientific knowledge, techniques and methods of taxonomy and more generally with the Sciences of Zoology and Botanics, constitute major obstacles in memorizing and therefore in learning to identify such a variety of these species. This leads to frustration of the users of the available prior art products of illustrated cards for the identification of organisms in the field and to their discouragement from further use and promotion of such products.
It is the object of the present invention to overcome the above mentioned problems through providing an illustrated guide for the identification of organisms-targets in the field, such guide being equipped with a special marking mechanism for each one of the illustrated organisms-targets, such marking mechanism appropriately allowing the direct and active marking by the user of those organisms that he recognizes with certainty in the field.
It is a further object of the invention to provide the user with the capacity to employ his personal judgment in marking with the use of the above mentioned marking mechanisms potentially different degrees of certainty related to the recognition in the field of the illustrated organisms-targets being recorded by means of the aforementioned corresponding marking mechanisms, through displacement of a pointer means of the corresponding marking mechanism in a position that indicates the specifically designated degree of certainty in each particular case.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method of providing information and training in relation to organisms encountered in a certain field, such method comprising employment of the herein proposed illustrated guide for the identification of organisms encountered in the field with a scope of recordal and storage, by means of the aforementioned marking mechanisms incorporated therein, of the visual observations of the user during his visit in the field and the subsequent research of further information related to the identified organisms after the visit by means of suitable information resources (e.g. special editions, electronic media, interne, etc.) so that the user may acquire skills in handily and accurately identifying these organisms during his future visits in the field.
A final object of the invention is to provide a system of providing information and training in relation to organisms encountered in a certain field, such system comprising printed and/or electronic media of information related to these organisms and may have an interactive character so that the user can cross-check the information collected and stored during his visit in the field by means of the abovementioned marking mechanisms with the corresponding information resources in due course. Consequently, the proposed system provides an added value in the recreational activity and at the same time contributes towards enhancing the sensitivity of the user on issues related to environmental conservation and protection of the biological diversity.